Romero (Moreno Brothers)

Chapter 1 -

High School Graduation

Romero

Manny was on his third disposable camera. His girlfriend Aida stood next to him, wearing a dress that looked like he just picked her up on a street corner.

"Can you wind up your plastic camera a little faster so we can get out of here?" Max said. "It's hotter than shit out here."

"Shut up and get in there, will you? I'm sending every damn one of these to Cousin Lou in Texas. That asshole didn't think we could raise this kid." He smiled at Romero, and if Romero didn't know any better, he'd think Manny was getting choked up again. Jesus. "C'mon smile, will you?"

Romero's uncles had always insisted he use their first names.

"You know, if you break down and buy a digital camera like everyone else, you can send them to him tonight in an email," Max said.

Manny took a few more pictures. Romero got tired of telling him about his finger on the lens. Let him be pissed about it when he got all the pictures back. All he could think of was getting the hell out of there to go party with his friends.

"I can do the same with these as soon as I get them back. They give you a disc over at the drug store, smartass. Besides why would I buy a digital camera when I got a load of these?"

Romero frowned. His uncles had plenty of friends with "connections." They constantly hooked him up with things that fell off of delivery trucks in exchange for favors. Because of the business his uncles ran, they had plenty of favors to barter with that those types of guys would really enjoy. The latest hookup had been a few dozen boxes of disposable cameras. "Are we done?" Romero asked.

"Yeah, with this one." Manny dumped the camera in a tote and pulled out another brand new disposable camera. "Go get your friends. I want a few with them in it."

Romero began to protest, but it was pointless. If he didn't obey, his uncle was bound to start yelling for his friends to get their asses over here anyway. Rather than endure another one of their usual public scenes, he complied. "All right, I'll go get them, but make it fast because I got somewhere to be."

"Yeah, yeah, you'll go when I say you go. We're going to dinner, remember? I didn't get all dolled up for nothing."

Aida fixed his uncle's bright red tie. Both his uncles had worn suits for the occasion. As usual, their choice in clothes didn't disappoint. Manny, a heavyset man, was in a white suit with a black shirt and bright red tie. Max looked like something out of a zoot suit movie. But it was all good. Romero was used to this. This was nothing compared to the matching powder blue suits they'd worn to his middle school graduation and the scuffle they started in the crowd during the ceremony. "That fat bitch got right in front of me just as I was taking the picture!" was Manny's argument.

That fat bitch's husband didn't take too kindly to his uncle's foul mouth, and it was on.

As he walked through the crowd of bodies, many still in their graduation robes, he spotted Claire—sweet, quiet, bookish Claire. Ever since the tenth grade when he'd caught her trying not to laugh at one of his lewd remarks, she'd been on his get-to-know list. Up until then, he'd only had a to-do list when it came to girls. In fact, there were only two girls on his get-to-know list ever. Ironically, the other one, Libby, was a lot like Claire. Only unlike Claire, he'd never gotten the feeling Libby might actually be attracted to him, except for the few times he caught her staring and he thought she might've blushed. Unfortunately, they'd been in class, and she'd spun her head around so fast he wasn't able to tell. Another unfortunate thing about her was she'd moved away a year ago.